So, if Brutus is wrong then it’s even more absurd to let cyclists demand so much of Robinson. I would like to share with the biking community that things with them seem to be a one-way street. I am sick and tired of seeing cyclists disregard laws and ordinances. When cyclists start showing some respect for others, maybe I will be more interested in their demands.

In a long, long ago speech widely covered by the media, President Kennedy once said:

“Ask not what your Country can do for you, but what you can do for your Country.”

El Paso’s bike crowd has reversed the meaning of that long ago speech to now mean:

“Ask not what you can do for your Country, but what your Country (city) can do for you.”

The sad thing about many of the already installed city bike lanes, is taxpayers can see they get little use. In the meantime the city has many shitty streets with pot holes and badly faded stripping.

Add to that shitty equation, that now on your El Paso Water Utilities monthly bill, is a new monthly $3 charge “to fund much needed street repairs throughout El Paso.” That’s an extra $36 per year charge the city hid in your EPWU bill, that they did not want to hit you for on your city tax bill.

Where is El Paso’s so called valiant, outspoken news media on these transparency and oversight matters?

Aren’t there still two city council races that require a run off election?

Bikes were a big part of my youth and I also delivered papers by bike. I never had a bike lane. I did know that I had to share the road and obey traffic lights and stop signs, something local bikers do not do. I’m yet to see a person on a bicycle pulled over by an El Paso police officer.

The bike crowd reportedly told the planners that riding on the wide bike and pedestrian lane built next to the traffic lane of Robinson was too dangerous as it was not wide enough (although they seem to be able to share space on the bike and walk path going down Brown from Kerbey). City policy now seems to be that just about every road is a bike road. Alameda has signs along it indicating to bicycle riders that they can take the full lane…and this is a state highway. It seems to me that this is a very dangerous setup. (Check out the intersection of Baltimore and Stanton, where some genius has drawn bicycle paths crossing directly in front of south-bound cars on Stanton.)

And at the time cyclists made that presentation, the city was going to stop doing bike lanes that weren’t physically segregated from traffic (as in curb or poles) because supposedly that was what biking communities in other cities had moved to. Now we are back to striping roads. Cyclists seem to have a problem with that, cars have a problem with that. The only folks that see it as a good idea work for the city.

Why doesn’t the city make cyclists pay for permits to offset the costs of all the bicycle lanes?

Cars have to be registered, which, in theory, pays for the roads.

In reality politicians spend that money on other things and have bond elections to raise $100 millions for roads, then spend that money on other things as well. Like a mini-social security plan, they keep saying the money is for one thing but spending it on unrelated things.

I very rarely see anyone riding a bicycle. When I do it seems to be recreational, unless they wear all that bicycling gear to work. The tremendous amount of money being spent for what is actually an indulgence in exercise or a hobby is ridiculous.

Never has so much been spent by so many to benefit so few.

Unless you look at the ever-increasing cost of public transportation, namely Sun Metro. There is another area where the local politicians seem to be ignoring reality while spending money like it doesn’t come from people who work for a living.

What frustrates me is that I never see cyclists in these lanes. Instead they are riding 3 or 4 abreast on two lane roads with no little or no shoulder. Virtually all are recreational cyclists, meaning they aren’t locked in to commute. They complain they don’t have bike lanes, the city spends a fortune modifying roads and then the cyclists don’t use them, complaining there isn’t enough separation from cars or the road has debris or is rough. Yet the places many of them choose to ride instead have all those problems. Until cyclists start using what the taxpayers are giving them, I think we should stop building bike lanes.